It may be important to keep some eleven plus children away from the work of Thomas More writing on Utopia. Some children may take some of his precepts literally.
The Regulation of Work and Employment.
More, writing in 1516, felt that it was important to regulate work.
“It is time to do some work.”
“But I did some yesterday. Sir Thomas said that work needed to be regulated. I am going to keep regular hours. Now is not the moment.”
More felt that useless occupations needed to be prohibited.
“Mother, when I get to university, after I have passed my eleven plus and gone to grammar school, I am going to study for a worthwhile degree. I want to save the world so I want to do a Save the World degree.”
“Yes dear, ask your father about useful degrees. He has two.”
“But mum.”
In the case of a season of unemployment More resorted to the simple device of shortening the day’s labours. Men and women only had to work four hours a day – thus allowing employment for more.”
“Today I am only going to do half my eleven plus work – so that I can do an equal amount on another day.”
“But, dear, we have many papers. You do not need to hold back. We can easily obtain more.”
“No no. We need to think green. I will not do a paper today. I will do just half today.”
One other suggestion of More was that when an individual visited a friend the work was the same as if he or she was at home. He or she did the same task as the friend was engaged in.
“No, I don’t need to do a paper today. I am going to see Sam today. We will do part of a paper together.”
“His mother may not like you doing that.”
“Well, Sam and I will be productive together.”
Finally Utopia is noted for its scarcity of laws.
“There is no law that I need to do an eleven plus paper.”
“But dear, practice makes perfect.”
“Show me the law and I will do a paper right now. I don’t want to be difficult; I just need to some time to myself. I will work when I am ready.”
“Yes, dear.”
No comments:
Post a Comment